In our final episode of season 1, we have the honour of being joined by Michelle Brass to discuss the guiding question, ‘what makes reconciliation a polarizing topic?” Michelle is a speaker, writer, and health and wellness coach deeply committed to the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples and communities. She’s the creator of the SHAWL Program, a health and wellness program that leads people to become Sustainable Health and Wellness Leaders (SHAWL), and eventually SHAWL Certified Facilitators within their communities. The program addresses the aspects of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, rooted in an Indigenous approach to community well-being, and leads participants to make long-lasting changes in their lives to improve the health and healing of our people and our Mother Earth. As a former journalist, she loves to read and research my areas of interest, especially in health, wellness, and Indigenous food systems. Over the course of her previous career, she was a TV and radio reporter, editor of an Indigenous youth magazine, newspaper columnist, news/talk radio host and a CBC Radio host. Michelle is a proud member of the Yellow Quill First Nation (Saulteaux/Anishnaabe) and resides in Treaty Four Territory in Saskatchewan, Canada. You can read more about Michelle here: https://www.michellebrass.com/site/about and learn more about the SHAWL program. Please join us for this deep conversation to consider some ways you can take action (or continue to take action) on reconciliation in Canada.

I’m honoured to have my guest today be Louise Adongo, executive director of Inspiring Communities! Louise has been a friend over the years, sharing resources - books and ideas - and was the first one to believe in this concept of exploring polarizing conversations.  I hope you’ll join us for this great conversation about what we can learn about ourselves through exploring polarizing conversations.

Louise Adongo is a bold and grounded leader who brings over a decade of experience in systems change, policy and evaluation to Inspiring Communities. She is known for bringing care and intention to uncovering the roots of tangled problems; and enabling shifts to greater resilience, sustainability and impact. 

She believes in carving institutional spaces that are more nimble, transparent and creative.  For the last decade she has worked for the Nova Scotia government’s departments of Health, Justice (NSHRC), Labour & Advanced Education, Business (ERDT), Service Nova Scotia & Internal Services and Infrastructure & Housing. There, Louise advanced work on social labs in government, convened Policy Circles to encourage connection & communication among policy professionals on timely topics and initiated interdepartmental collaborations to support wellness and career advancement of Black women. She co-Chaired the African-Canadian Women in the Public Service Network (ACWPS). 

Unafraid of challenge or change, Louise has a deep commitment to advancing social justice and anti-racism. She has guided the Avalon Sexual Assault Centre’s reorganization as their interim Board Chair, co-led a Black Women and Leadership Forum and facilitated organizational & strategic planning  sessions for a variety of community organizations. She sits on the Board of Directors of the CUA and previously volunteered with the Health Association of African Canadians (HAAC ), the Halifax Local Immigrant Partnership (HLIP ), and as co-founder & Board Secretary for the Freetown Initiative (now Help2Overcome). She was also the co-chair of the 2019 Canadian Evaluation Society National Conference.

Louise is able to seamlessly navigate among the cultures of community, non-profit, business and government to make incredible things happen. She holds graduate degrees in Applied Health Services Research and Plant Biochemistry.

She is a proud mother of a young toddler and is often creatively fired up about a wide range of subjects. To relax, she gardens, reads, explores new places in the Atlantic region and enjoys talks about system change on patios or in living rooms with friends.

Ivan Okello is a first-generation immigrant from Uganda, East Africa currently based in the Siknikt district of the unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq, a city also known as Moncton, NB.

Ivan currently serves as the Project Manager of Antiracism Initiatives at the New Brunswick Multicultural Council (NBMC).

He is an educator and storyteller who believes in using education as a medium for bridging social inequities and advancing social change. His goal is to live in a society free of injustice.

Ivan’s educational background includes Gender studies, International Development and Antiracism/decolonization. He has previously worked in post-secondary institutions, and non-Profits.

Ivan is passionate about building bridges across diverse communities and ensuring that society/organizations are (re)designed to serve and cultivate everyone’s potential.

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Thank you SO MUCH for joining me for today’s Polarizing Conversation.  Much gratitude to Inspiring Communities for supporting season 1 of this podcast series. If you liked this episode, please share it and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!  If you missed the other episodes, check us out at www.polarizingconversations.com. And let me know what you think. We have some exciting polarizing conversations coming up in the rest of the season - I sincerely hope you’ll join me on this journey of finding common ground on some of the most difficult topics of our time.